The Kidz aren't Aiight
by Stoner Guru Ron Slater
Summary: Alternate ending to the KIdz are Aiight. Zack doesn't figure out that Manticore tricked him until its too late. Chapter 3 up.
1. Prologue

The Kidz aren't Aiight

Summary: Zack does not discover that his escape was a setup by Manticore and it leads to a chain reaction of victories for Lydecker.

Prologue

Max and Zack were hiding out in the cave where Zack had told Max to meet him.

"So what about Krit? What's he been up to?" Max asked curiously.

"Krit is..." Zack trailed. "I can't remember."

"It's okay, it'll come back to you." Max assured him. "Why don't you get some rest. I saw a gas station up the road, I'll go get us some food. If I'm not back by sundown, go on and find the others without me."

She left the cave and headed in the direction of the road. After about ten minutes of sneaking past Manticore's nontransgenic soldiers she reached the road. She took a quick glance around to make sure she hadn't been followed or discovered by any of the soldiers, then crossed the road. She strode across the parking lot and entered the store hurriedly. She grabbed a couple bags of chips and some soda, then brought it over to the counter. As the clerk rang up her items, she looked around the store, taking note of the fresh coat of paint on the sign outside and the security camera that was currently fixiated on her position and remained unmoving. The clerk finished pricing the food and put it into a bag.

"Here's your stuff." He said warmly. "Have a good one, Max."

"Thanks." Max replied quickly, then snapped her attention to the clerk. "You're with Manticore." She realized.

"Oh, now you've gone and blown my cover." The clerk mocked

Before Max could blink, the 'clerk' launched himself over the counter and tackled her around the waist, sending the two of them sprawling to the floor. Max struggled to free herself, but soon found herself pinned down by the clerk.

"Give it up, 452." The 'clerk' told her. "You're going back to Manticore."

"Like hell I am!" Max screamed and bit down on the 'clerk's' wrist as hard as she could. The 'clerk' howled in pain.

"You bitch!" he shouted and pulled a syringe out of his pocket. Max realized his intent and tried to push him off, but wasn't able to free herself before the needle was jabbed into her neck and the tranquilizer was injeted into her. She immediately felt drowsy.

"I'd let you try to run, but you wouldn't make it out of the parking lot." The 'clerk' sneered.

"I'm sorry Zack." Max managed to whisper before the darkness overwhelmed her and she passed out.

The clerk stood up and flipped Max over, so she was laying on her stomach and handcuffed her wrists behind her bvack. Then he picked up a cell phone and speeddialed a number.

"This is 785, tell Lydecker that X5-452 has been successfully detained and a transport is requested immediately."

That night, when Max did not return, Zack left the cave to search for the others with a heavy heart. He had failed Max.


	2. Hunted

Chapter 1: Hunted

January 16th, 2020

Manticore facility

Donald Lydecker, the current head of Manticore, was sitting in a briefing room with several of his subordinates, namely Sandoval, and two committee members; James McGinnis and Elizabeth Renfro.

"Everything is going smoothly and accordingly to the plan we devised. X5-599 was outfitted with the micro-implant and within a day of his release we have already apprehended the rogue X5-452 , and have roughly ascertained the locations of X5's 626 aka Tinga, 205 aka Zane, 210 aka Jondy, 493 aka Ben, 751 aka Cora and 532 aka Faith." Lydecker reported.

"I assume you have given the orders to intercept and recapture them?" Renfro guessed

"My men are awaiting final orders for deployment, which will be given upon the adjournment of this meeting." Lydecker answered.

"Then consider this meeting finished." Renfro announced. "Send your men to get the X5's and bring them home. All of them."

Lydecker nodded and both McGinnis and Renfro left the room. Lydecker turned to Sandoval.

"It's time." He said simply and Sandoval nodded, then left the room.

"Enjoy what's left of your freedom kids." Lydecker muttered under his breath "Because I will make sure that your only loyalty lies with Manticore, when I get you back."

Downtown San Fransisco- Early Morning

A young woman, clad in a black skintight jumpsuit, with fiery red hair and bright green eyes strides out of a bar and walks down the street to where her red Ninja 1200 is leaning against a lamppost. She gets onto it and starts the engine. After a moment she revs it up and speeds away from the bar, heading for her house on the other side of the bridge. As she speeds down the almost empty streets, her long red hair flies in the wind, revealing a stark black barcode on the nape of her neck. From the sidewalk a man in a black suit whips out a camera and snaps a couple pictures of her, complete with barcode. Unaware of the man with the camera, the woman continues riding towards the Golden Gate sector checkpoint. She reaches the checkpoint half a minute later and shows the guard her pass. The cop takes a quick look at it. The id reads Jondy Peyton. After examining it quickly, the guard hands it back and waves her through. Jondy grins and speeds through the checkpoint. She guns the bike to maximum speed as she drives across the bridge and down through the other checkpoint.

A short time later, she arrives at her street, immediately sensing that something was very wrong. She quickly scanned the neighborhood and spotted several military vehicles parked in front of nearby buildings.

Shit Jondy thought angrily and started to turn around, but two hummers with the Manticore symbol on their hoods drove into view, blocking they way she had come. Two of the parked vehicles roared to life and backed into the roads to serve as barricades, cutting off the other two escape routes. Jondy looked around hurriedly and then remembered the narrow alleyway between her apartment and the one next to it.

Worth a shot. Jondy decided and floored her bike towards the alley, dodging the tazer darts and successfully escaping into the alley. Her plan would have worked if Manticore had not already considered the possibility that she may try to use the alley as escape route and stationed two soldiers in the shadows to ambush her. As she approached their hiding spots, they jumped into view and held up a thick rope so that it was level with her chest. Jondy was unable to stop in time and the wind was knocked out of her lungs as she was thrown off the bike. Jondy hit the tarmac hard and before she could react, both of her attackers were on top of her, holding her down. Once they made sure that they each had a firm grasp on her, they helped her to stand. Once she was up one of the men released his hold on her. Before she could blink, the other had her in a full nelson hold. she struggled against him with all her strength, but he was too strong and she was unable to break free of his hold. The second man pulled out a tazer wand. Flicking it on, he thrust it into her gut, sending electricity coursing over her body. She moaned in anguish and lifted her head to look at her assailiant. His face was completely devoid of any emotion, save for the slight glint in his eyes that Jondy guessed was pride in having be able to take down one of the '09' escapees. Jondy felt herself grow tired as the soldier continued to electrocute her. After about ten seconds of being tazed, Jondy slumped in the grasp of the first soldier. She was awake but unable to move any part of her body.

"Her strength is gone." The soldier with the tazer reported and turned the wand off. He pocketed it. The first soldier loosened his hold on her and moved his grip to her underarms. The second soldier grasped her feet and lifted them. The two men carried her out of the alley and loaded her into a waiting transport.

Los Angeles, California

Maximum Security Prison

Faith sat in a single's cell, reflecting on her actions that caused her to wind up in jail. She desperately wished she could go back and stop herself from committing the atrocities that led to her winding up in jail. But despite her many skills, turning back th hands of time was not among them. So she sat in silence and meditated.

The warden of the prison watched her on a monitor from his office. He turned to look at the bald man that was waiting for him to make a decision.

"Are you sure she's the one?" The Warden asked. "She's got a mean streak half a mile long."

"You're prison files documented that one of her distinguishing marks was a jet black barcode tattoo on the nape of her neck." Sandoval answered. "I am positive she is the one we are looking for."

The warden nodded. "If it gets her out of my hair. What do you need me to do?"

"Mix sedatives into her meal, then give it to her." The bald man answered. "When she is sleeping, I need her prepped for transport."

"As you wish." The warden replied

A half hour later, Faith's unconscious body was loaded into a Manticore bound helicopter.

One by one, Manticore recaptured the '09' X5 escapees. After receiving information on the remaining three X5's locations, Lydecker sent out men to collect them as well. Krit, Syl, and Zane were captured in Los Angeles, Tinga was caught in Portland, detained Cora in Tampa Florida, and intercepted Zack in Tuscon. Ben had been cornered in Montana, but chose to terminate himself rather than return to Manticore. The only escapee they were unable to locate was Shal. She had some how managed to elude capture, and even Zack admitted he had no idea where she was. Lydecker didn't care though. He had nine of his 'kids' back and that was all that mattered to him.

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So How do you like it?

Celtic Jedi- I'm glad you like my story so far and I hope you like this chapter as much.


	3. Family Reunion

Chapter 2: Family reunion

Two days later

The recaptured X5's spent two days in holding cells in the basement of Manticore's Seattle facility, in which they were allowed partial contact with one another due to the steel bars the separated the individual cells. Nine of the ten cells were occupied by an '09er' escapee. The north side had from left to right; Krit, Syl, Zane, Tinga and Jondy. The south side had from left to right; Zack, Cora, Max, and Faith. All of the captives had regained their strength, and ha made several thwarted attempts to escape. After a day and a half, they grudgingly accepted the fact that they were not getting out this time, and had just been sulking around for the last twelve hours, all felling lost and dejected. When the steel doors to the basement hall opened, they immediately snapped to attention, and they watched as the man who had made the childhood a living hell strode in, accompanied by four TAC leaders.

"Welcome home, children. Eleven years is far to long to be away and I can assure you all that you have all been deeply missed ." Lydecker announced, and received growls and obscene hand gestures from all of his 'kids'.

"Just quit with the small talk and start the torture session, sadist." Zane spat angrily at the man who had ended Eva's life all those years ago.

"I know that you kids hate me and will try to do anything and everything within your powers to break away and escape again, but that is never going to happen." Lydecker said matter of factly. "You will all be reindoctrinated and then brought back into the fold as loyal, unwavering soldiers."

"You'll never be able to brainwash us into fighting for you. We all know the truth and you can't take that away from us." Jondy quipped and the others nodded vigorously in agreement.

"Funny." Lydecker noted aloud. "That's exactly what Brin said, and well, you'll have to see for yourselves."

Lydecer turned to one of the TAc leaders.

"Finlay, go and retrieve X5-734 from the training yards and bring her here. the TAC leader nodded and left. Lydecker turned back to his 'kids' and began pacing the room, regarding each of them individually.

"In time, you will all realize your purpose in life, the reason you were created." Lydecker stated.

"Shut up, Lydecker. Reindoctrination or not, I will never fight for you or Manticore ever again." Max shouted.

"What ever you do to us, no matter how much you hurt and torture us, we will keep fighting back and we will not be broken." Syl said

"In just a short while you all see just how wrong you all are." Lydecker responded promply.

After a few moments of silence, the TAC leader called Finlay returned with Brin following in his wake.

"Ah just in time to show just how powerful at persuasion our PSYOP's unit can be." Lydecker announced and turned towards Brin. All the prisoner X5's turned to look at their sister. Lydecker grinned at their sudden wave of attentiveness.

"State your designation." Lydecker ordered Brin, and the X5's looked at her, praying she wouldn't respond.

Brin snapped to attention and answered. "X5-734, Sir!"

"What is your name soldier?"

"I have no given name, with the occasional exception of mission aliases." Brin replied quickly.

"Very good." Lydecker told her "You may return to the training yard."

Brin nodded and left the hall without some much as a quick glance to any of her siblings.

"You see, one of the strongest minds to have escaped Manticore is once again a loyal and obedient soldier." Lydecker said smirking, then left the room with the four TAC leaders following.

As soon as Lydecker was gone, Syl started to cry and Krit stuck his arms through the bars and wrapped her in a consoling hug. Jondy started kicking the door in an attempt to break it down. Max tried to bend the steel to no avail. Cora, Zane, and Faith sat down on their cots, while Tinga and Zack remained standing.

"What do we do now." Jondy asked blankly, after she had stooped attacking the door, to anyone who was listening.

"I don't know." Zack said, speaking for the first time since they had been there. "I'm really sorry for getting you all caught."

"It's not your fault Zack." Max said. "If I had gone to Canada with you, none of this would have happened."

"But if you had come with me, Logan would be dead right now." Zack reasoned, despite his great dislike of the man.

"What difference does it make? I'll never see him again." Max said sadly.

"Max, you will see him again. No matter what they do to us, I promise that I will get you all out of here."

"Not to counter you, but it doesn't seem likely." Cora said, "I mean, the first time we got out, we had the element of surprise, now they would just be expecting us to try, if not encouraging it, so they can stop us from getting away and break our hopes."

As Cora finished speaking, the doors to the hallway opened and about fifteen soldiers entered. Each was wearing a gas mask and several were brandishing strange guns. Faith recognized them immediately.

"Well isn't this just swell. They think that we are enough of a threat that they have to gas us, before transport. What's the mater boys, tasers not getting the job done anymore?" She mocked.

The head soldier gave a hand gesture and the gun-toting men began to pump foggy gas into the room. The x5's tried holding their breaths, and were successful until the soldiers pulled out taser wands and shocked them into drawing in air. Within moments all of the X5's were sprawled on the cold concrete floor, unconscious. The soldiers picked up the limp forms and prepped them for transport to Psy Ops.

Thank you Celtic Jedi, Zombie Gurl, willow98002, Meritaten, and AngelOfDarkness231 for the great reviews. Keep em coming!


	4. Reassigned

A/N: I'm sorry it took so long for me to update, having to deal with college and everything but I promise that I will update more frequently from now on.

---Schizm01430---

Chapter 3: Rassigned

One year later

Manticore

"Are you absolutely positive that they are reindoctrinated enough to be returned to active duty?" Agent Robert Sandoval asked his superior Donald Lydecker.

"If I wasn't sure about it, then I wouldn't been doing it, now would I?" Lydecker said.

"Of course not sir, I wasn't trying to undermine you or be insubordinate in any way sir." Sandoval stammered like the spineless, sniveling little bitch he was. Lydecker didn't know why he put up with the man.

"I want you to go find them and inform them that they are to join the unit that I have assigned them. Now get out of my office." Lydecker ordered and Sandoval scurried out like a rat.

Donald sighed and turned back to his computer, and began to browse the files of the former escapees. He shuffled through Cora, Krit, Syl, and finally came to stop on Max's file. He leaned back in his chair and just stared at the screen, deep in thought.

Manticore Training Yard

The 09ers are standing in a straight line, unmoving and unblinking, just staring forward as a very gung ho military trainer screams at them at the top of his lungs. The transgenics do not respond to him, they just continue to stare ahead as if he wasn't even there. The trainer stops yelling when he sees Sandoval walking his way. Sandoval stops in front of the trainer and whispers something to him. The trainer listens for a moment then nods. Sandoval moves in front of the line to address them.

"Today Colonel Lydecker has decided that you have been successfully reindoctrinated and are being reassigned to Unit 3. Now go to your new barracks to await further instructions."

The nine former rogues obeyed and quickly departed for their new quarters, happy to finally get out of the solitary cells and back in a barrack where they could conspire for their escape. Zack led the way from the training yard into the east wing of the facility. Jondy and Max followed side by side behind him, then Faith and Zane, Syl and Krit, and Cora and Tinga took up the rear. After a few minutes of walking, they found the unit 3 quarters and stepped into the room. They were met by five other X series, two male and three female, and they did not look too happy to see them.

"Welcome back, I'm 494. Your new CO."

TBC…..


	5. Mission Parameters

The Kidz Aren't Aiight

By Schizm 01430

Chapter 4: Mission Parameters

"Welcome back., I'm 494. Your new CO." 494 said amicably.

"Ben?" Jondy and Max asked simulatiously.

494 shook his head. "You must be talking about 493. You can call me Alec if you wish, It was one of my mission aliases, back from a couple months ago."

"Oh, you mean assassinations." Syl spat in disgust.

"It was my job, you wanna bust my chops about it, go ahead." Alec replied. "Now I understand, that you all named yourselves before you left in 2009."

"Maybe." Zack said, refusing to answer directly, not wanting to end up back in PSY-Ops after having just been released after a year of that hell and not wanting his family to suffer any more.

"Sir, maybe I can be of some assistance in answering your question." One of the female X5's spoke up.

"Ah yes, 718. you used to be in our esteemed 599's unit before they went AWOL, Didn't you?" Alec said, and everyone's gaze snapped to the girl who had just spoken.

"Jace?" Zane managed to choke out, addressing the sister who had opted to remain at Manticore when they had escaped.

"Yes, Zane." Jace said softly. "It's me. Let me see if I remember all of you as well."

She paused for a moment, then pointed at Syl, then Krit, Cora, Jondy, Faith, Max, Zack, and finally Tinga, saying each of their names as she went.

The nine of them, looked very uneasy as she finished.

"What's the matter?" The other X5 male said curiously. "Are you worried you're gonna get busted for your 'individuality'? I'd be more worried about the others that you left behind when you left. See the directors wanted to make sure that no one else would follow in your footsteps. Your twins, like my buddy Alec here, got the worst of it. Since they shared the same basic psychological profiles as the twelve of you. You created a lot of bad blood when you left, and I can say with complete certainty that I wouldn't want to be your buddy 372, right now. He's the only one still at large, and last I heard, Renfro had given the order 10-0-6 upon sight."

"They're gonna kill Kye?" Jondy asked horrified.

"If he doesn't come quietly. We will have to." One of the other girls said. She had light red hair and was relatively short for an X5. "You can call me Gem." She introduced.

"What do you mean, we?" Cora asked, suspiciously.

"Our first mission together, is the retrieval of X5-372." Alec informed them. "If we succeed in this mission, then the neural explosives implanted at the bases of each of your skulls will be disarmed. Failure will result in another couple of months in re-indoc. Escape attempts will result in your neutralization, and I take no joy in telling you this."

Max and the others glanced at each other in distress. They really were stuck in this for the long haul.

TBC…..


End file.
